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Campaign Against Lawyers’ “Criminal Gang” Broadenshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/campaign-against-rights-lawyers-criminal-gang-broadens/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/campaign-against-rights-lawyers-criminal-gang-broadens/#commentsMon, 13 Jul 2015 13:59:03 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184789Chinese authorities’ sweeping move against dozens of rights lawyers and activists late last week has expanded further over the weekend. The number of people reportedly involved has surged to over 100 across China, and the offices of three law practices—most notably Beijing Fengrui Law Firm—have been searched. Fengrui lawyers Wang Yu, Zhou Shifeng, Wang Quanzhang, and Huang Liqun, as well as Wang’s husband Bao Longjun and Fengrui administrative assistant Liu Sixin have all been criminally detained.

In an article on Sunday headlined “Uncovering the dark story of ‘rights defence’.”, spanning two-thirds of its second page, People’s Daily said the Ministry of Public Security launched the operation to “smash a major criminal gang that had used the Beijing Fengrui law firm as a platform since July 2012 to draw attention to sensitive cases, seriously disturbing social order”.

The article said the firm’s director Zhou Shifeng, his assistant Liu Sixin, lawyers Wang Quanzhang, Huang Liqun, Wang Yu and her husband Bao Longjun were in criminal detention for “seriously violating the law”. It did not specify a charge. On the mainland, police can detain suspects for up to 37 days before prosecutors approve their formal arrests.

It said “the criminal gang” comprised Zhou, Wang Yu, Wang Quanzhang, Huang as well as Liu, Bao and high-profile activist Wu Gan [background via CDT], who masterminded many plots in the name of “rights defence, justice and public interest”. It accused them of “colluding with petitioners to disturb social order and to reach their goals with ulterior motives”.

[…] People’s Daily said Wu was “a key player” in drawing a huge public outcry over the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, Xu Chunhe, by a policeman in Qingan, Heilongjiang [background via CDT], in May, offering 100,000 yuan (HK$126,000) for any footage showing the incident. Other rights lawyers were accused of involvement. “These lawyers publicly challenged the court … and mobilised troublemakers to rally petitioners … outside the court,” it said. “They are the direct pushers.” [Source]

First, it was the lawyers’ job to hype up an incident, according to Zhai Yanmin, a major organizer of the group.

[…] Then the job shifted to social media celebrities and petitioners. Wu Gan, known for “boldly” stirring controversial incidents, posted messages on his social media account, offering 100,000 yuan (16,106 U.S. dollars) for any video clips that have caught the “truth” of the incident.

Zhai then hired “petitioners” to shout slogans, sit quietly and raise defiant signs to support the lawyers. According to one suspect surnamed Li, she was paid 600 yuan for carrying a sign onsite.

There are others responsible for filming scenes of “mass incidents” and posting them on some overseas websites to manipulate public opinion.

“They have been following the protocol in hyping up such incidents since 2013, when I first entered the business,” said Zhai, adding many of his peers were resentful of the Party and the government, taking pride in being detained by the police.

[…] The suspects, Zhai, Wu, Huang Liqun and Liu Xing have reflected on their alleged crimes and realized their harmful impact, said the statement. [Source]

The rule of law is meant to maintain social order and uphold justice. It should promote social harmony, but radical human rights lawyers are intentionally creating conflict between the government and the public. Through false information, they paint the government as a “protector of evil,” and law-breakers as “brave citizens.” Thus, the truth has been blurred as individual cases were portrayed as the “people’s fight against tyranny,” and promoted as “the real defender of people’s rights.”

China is committed to promoting the rule of law. Yet a handful of extremists are making every effort to discredit the government, and that the radical lawyers are the “good guys.” This is no longer the rule of law, but politically-motivated provocation. It is regrettable to see a few legal professionals trying to obstruct the rule of law. If public officials are involved in a case, radical lawyers may appear to stoke public opinion. No country would encourage their lawyers to operate this way. [Source]

We can of course spend much time conducting significant amounts of analysis to explain why the authorities’ allegations are either unfounded or deeply misleading. However, the fact that the very mission of lawyers is to protect rights needs no analysis. The fact that ordinary people who are being persecuted have the right to seek the assistance of lawyers needs no analysis. The fact that under a system without judicial independence, ordinary citizens and lawyers are forced, as a last resort, to mass protests and fundraising for group litigation in order to seek justice from the Courts, needs no analysis. As such, the fact that the recent arrests, detentions and disappearances are without basis needs no analysis. [Source]

New York University law professor Jerome Cohen, one of the first American lawyers to work in China after the country opened up in the late 1970s, described the sweep as “insane.” China’s leaders “must be in desperate straits to engage in this extraordinary, coordinated attack on human-rights lawyers,” he said.

Frustration with China’s Communist Party-controlled courts has given rise to a coterie of self-described “die-hard” lawyers who use confrontational tactics in and outside the courtroom in defense of clients whose cases are considered politically sensitive. Such lawyers have sometimes had run-ins with local authorities, but William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, said the orders for this week’s sweep likely came from Beijing.

[…] President Xi has made rule of law a cornerstone of his public agenda, but has also escalated restrictions on civil-society groups since coming to power. “The crackdown over the last two years has been so systematic that the attack on human-rights lawyers is the next logical step for authorities—but that’s especially worrying as they are the last gatekeeper of civil society for China,” said Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch.

“Of course, if human-rights lawyers can be neutralized, then the party will have the ideal situation: laws that look good on their face, but are never applied in ways that will interfere with government politics,” Mr. Cohen said. [Source]

The real reason for this crackdown is a rising rights consciousness among ordinary Chinese. Though they know the legal system offers scant protection, many Chinese citizens are willing to file a lawsuit when their civil or property rights are violated. And though they know the result could be prison or worse, they often make a fuss using the Internet and every other means at their disposal.

The stubborn lawyers who defend these stubborn clients represent a challenge to the Party’s claim to stand above the rule of law. And that is why extralegal methods are used against them. Most of the families of the detained lawyers have not even been notified, also in violation of Chinese law. They have simply disappeared into secret prisons.

This mistreatment of legal professionals is one more escalation by supreme leader Xi Jinping in his crackdown on all political dissent. It reveals to the world again that the rule of law in China is simply whatever the Communist Party says it is. [Source]

Over the last few days we have noted with growing alarm reports that Chinese public security forces have systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others, including those who lawfully challenge official policies. ‎We are deeply concerned that the broad scope of the new National Security Law [background via CDT] is being used as a legal facade to commit human rights abuses. We strongly urge China to respect the rights of all of its citizens and to release all those who have recently been detained for seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens. [Source]

[…] Each year, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a research organization under the powerful State Council, there are more than 100,000 “mass incidents,” the officially accepted name for protests, riots, and other forms of social disorder in China. But because most mass incidents are confined to their respective localities, people outside of these regions scarcely know about them. As a result, according to University of Bridgeport political science professor Stephen Hess, “the outbreak of protest” in China, “while frequent and often highly charged, has emerged as a fragmented and localized phenomenon.”

Lu felt he could help connect these scattered voices to a wider audience. So far he’s been right, but it hasn’t been easy: Navigating China’s pervasively censored Internet has required Lu to be in tune with a rapidly changing online lexicon to stay ahead of the censors. Words like “protest,” “strike,” “riot,” and “demonstration” often don’t last long online. Internet users sometimes respond by writing in code, mixing Chinese characters with Roman letters, using metaphors, and other tricks. Using a list of more than 100 phrases he’s developed, which he refused to share, Lu believes he can capture most of the protests being shared online. Lu archives several dozen to more than two hundred incidents a day. He preserves pictures, descriptions of the events, comments from participants, and links to the source posts. Lu is able to avoid having his Internet cut-off by local police by using wireless Internet cards. As a result, his IP address changes constantly.

[…] Lu said that he tries to verify what he sees. If a photo or a tweet has no corroborating sources, Lu does not post the incident on Weibo or Twitter. Lu said there have been “a few times” when the details of his reports turned out to be inaccurate, particularly details about the number of protesters. But Lu said he is being as careful as possible.

[…] Wang Jiangsong, a labor relations specialist and professor at China Institute of Industrial Relations in Beijing, wrote on Weibo that Lu’s work “documents and promotes the truth about labor and citizen movements, and it’s great public service.” […] [Source]

Roughly 20 police removed Wang Gongquan from his home in Beijing on charges of disturbing public order shortly after noon on Friday, according to Chen Min, a family friend.

Mr. Wang, a sometimes outspoken critic of the government, is a prominent member of the “New Citizens Movement,” a loose collection of mostly white-collar urbanites who have issued calls for greater protection of the right to free speech and other individual rights enshrined in China’s constitution. Members of the group have also been aggressive in pressing officials to publicly disclose their assets.

[…] Founder of the venture capital arm of multibillion-dollar investment firm CDH Investments LLC, Mr. Wang is a colorful figure, known in China for his politics and romantic exuberance as much as for his success as an investor. Before his account was deleted, he was known to pepper the popular Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo with a steady stream of poetry and social criticism. He grabbed headlines in 2011, when he announced Weibo that he was quitting his job and eloping with his mistress. He later returned to his wife and also went back to work, though he left his job again a short while later. [Source]

[…] Fellow Chinese, when the nest is upset no egg is left intact. Do not let our country fall any deeper into the abyss in the opposite direction of modern civilization without doing anything. Take actions to defend the effort to build a civil society, for, by doing so, we are defending ourselves, each one of us. [Source]

Wang: I am against street actions. I have never encouraged street actions.

SCMP: Why is that?

Wang: Because the Communist Party doesn’t allow it. It’s such a simple reason!

SCMP: Then what’s the meaning of your activism?

Wang: When the government hasn’t been able to well understand this, and can’t treat such matters with ease, you go into the street and they easily get nervous. And when they get nervous they resort to excessive defence. And that brings unnecessary trouble and sacrifice. That’s why I am against it. When I hear people talk about such things, I ask them not to do it. I don’t know if this puts me on the softer side among the circle of civil society activists. [Source]

“This is not what we are hoping for, but if, hypothetically speaking, the government did not have such generous tolerance, and insisted on looking at it this way, [and as a result I was] pressured or arrested, then there is nothing I can do, we believe this is the price we pay for being patriots. If it happens, then it happens, I am not deliberately preparing myself, because I have no such fear. Of course, I understand what you are saying, if that were true, what can I do? We would only wish everyone to be good citizens, we are only hoping to push for a new citizens movement, renew this society, all based on the maximum extent possible to obey the law. If in the end they still believe they must make arrests, they so be it, it is like us walking in the streets, of course are are on guard, but we would not avoid the streets altogether because we know there are thugs.” [Source]

Citizens who fight for justice may give headaches to government officials, they may be devoted believers, they may take on risk to defend what they believe to be right, they may helplessly sing the song “Eluding the Cat” or the “Grass Mud Horse” online (both songs challenge the authority of the regime – editor), they may have different views about the nation’s history, or they may be biased against the CCP, but they are not enemies of China. [Source]

As the international press left Wukan after its historic vote, Al Jazeera stayed on to follow the newly elected village committee in action. Over the course of more than a year, filmmakers Lynn Lee and James Leong documented Wukan’s unique experience with democracy.

From the high of the elections, to the grind of everyday work, to the dilemmas of leadership, this is a rare and intimate portrait of rural China in the midst of remarkable change. [Source]

The rest of the series will be shown in weekly installments on Al Jazeera throughout July. See earlier CDT coverage for more on Wukan and democratic reform.

While attempting to appease citizens by using all available channels for public communication, authorities have also been vigilantly extinguishing any spark that could potentially grow into an uncontrollable fire. The orders issued to stores in the Kunming area were not only intended to restrict the use of face masks as a form of symbolic resistance, but also to prevent the printing of materials used to mobilize for collective action. Furthermore, the upcoming China-South Asia Expo is set to take place in Kunming from June 6 to 10. Before and during any major event in China, stability maintenance is regarded as the top priority. The Olympics in 2008, the World Expo in 2009 and the 18th Congress in 2012 are all classic examples.

The orders, once exposed to the public, have been questioned and ridiculed. The Beijing Times (@京华时报) pointed out that the issuing of the orders is not only unreasonable but illegal. According to the Administrative License Law, government agencies beneath the provincial level may not establish any real-name registration system. In a tweet which was reposted more than 2,000 times, the People’s Daily tagged the mayor of the Kunming City, asking him for an explanation. Ironically, the account of the Kunming mayor was set up in early May to deal with the oil refinery dispute. [Source]

According to a 5/26 Yunnan Information News report, on 5/25 the Anning City Industry and Commerce Bureau Chief Yao Jingwei told a reporter that the face mask registration was a temporary measure to prevent the spread of avian flu and a convenient way to keep data on disease transmission.

[…] According to a Southern Weekend 5/21 online report, from the discovery of H7N9 Avian flu to the present day, China’s Health Ministries and Bureaus have reported 130 cases of H7N9, but none of the cases was diagnosed in Yunnan and no evidence of the H7N9 avian flu virus has been found in Yunnan. Also on 5/20, the day before Anning City’s Industry and Commerce Bureau issued the notice, Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province and many other provinces and cities officially ended their previously implemented preventative measures towards avian flu because flu transmission had considerably subsided. [Source]

Somewhat similarly, Chengdu police claimed on May 4th that the site of a planned protest against an oil refinery had been closed for an earthquake drill.

Dong Zhengwei, a lawyer based in Beijing, told the Global Times that both environmental protection law and the Constitution stipulate that residents should be able to access information that is related to their daily lives, however there are no regulations specifying conditions permitting an EIA [Environmental Impact Assessment] to be made confidential.

“If the first protest on May 4 was irrationally triggered by a lack of knowledge of oil refineries and PX,” Xiao said, “The second was caused more by the government’s secretive attitude.”

[…] “It is not that people don’t understand the importance of PX. They are not satisfied with the way the government has been dealing with the problem and they want to be heard,” Zhang Yiwu, a sociology professor from Peking University, told the Global Times. [Source]

The rise of the nimby movement is generally blamed on failings of Chinese environmental governance. But the differing strength of different interest groups is the real cause. That imbalance allows the powerful to use the system to their advantage, while the weak resort to less rational or even illegal forms of protest.

[…] China’s circumstances mean nimby campaigns sometimes succeed, but not because the public interest is being properly considered during the political decision-making process. Nor are they a solution for that failure. In nimby movements, with disorganised participants, the demands of the weak can be blown up to the extent they pose a threat to social stability.

The greater the impact of the protests, the more likely government is to pay attention. But there is no consideration of which group deserves to get what – only of maintaining social stability.

[…] With an imbalance of power and decision makers consciously or otherwise shirking their duties, the nimby problem may be insoluble. There’s plenty of polluting public infrastructure that can’t simply be cancelled – incinerators, sewage treatment plants, power stations must be built in someone’s backyard. If there is no effective system for balancing interests and forming consensus, problems will just be shuffled around, and China will have neither social harmony nor scientific development. [Source]

Whatever! … Everybody’s all ‘ah, democracy! The people are standing up!’ … PX seems to be the one thing you’re allowed to protest about … and then the protest is over and they move the plant 10 kilometers away and poison a bunch of peasants who don’t have Weibo …. But, you know, I remain optimistic. [Source (via Michael McDermott)]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/05/environmental-protests-a-sign-of-unequal-society/feed/0Police Quell Beijing Protest after Woman’s Deathhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/05/police-quell-beijing-protest-after-womans-death/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/05/police-quell-beijing-protest-after-womans-death/#commentsThu, 09 May 2013 01:39:39 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=155779A large protest broke out near a shopping mall in southern Beijing on Wednesday following the death last week of a 22-year-old migrant worker, according to Edward Wong of The New York Times, who reported that hundreds of police in riot gear arrived to contain the demonstration:

Word of the death spread on the Internet in the days after the woman, whose surname was Yuan, was initially said to have committed suicide by jumping from a top floor or roof of the mall, called Jingwen, last Friday. Rumors on the Internet said Ms. Yuan, a migrant worker from Anhui Province, had been raped by private security guards in the mall, where she worked, and might have been thrown to her death.

A shopkeeper who gave his name only as Mr Li said that some police had arrived at around 10am, followed by around 200 people who paraded down the street shouting “Protest! Protest!”

The rapidly growing number of officers then closed the road for the rest of the day, he said. Photographs of the scene posted online showed hundreds of people on the street, although it was not clear how many were protesters and how many were onlookers.

One bystander said that officers had clashed with protesters, beating them and dragging them into vans.

While police said a preliminary investigation and autopsy did not indicate foul play, and that the woman did not have any interaction with other people during the hours before she fell to her death, the state-run Global Times reported that the demonstrators demanded a more open investigation:

Rumors have been circulated online that Yuan was gang raped in a enclosed room inside the building by seven security guards, which led to her suicide, or that they even pushed her out. Yuan’s mother visited the Dahongmen Police Station supervising the market but was not allowed to see the surveillance footage, some Web users said.

The area where Ms Yuan worked is poor and is mostly populated by “outsiders” such as herself who work in the garment trading industry, according to residents. Scepticism of the police is widespread in China and many smaller protests across the country have been sparked by allegations of malpractice.

By Wednesday evening, the protest had dissipated amid heavy rain, but a large military presence was still visible, with dozens of parked buses carrying special forces, soldiers and police.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/05/police-quell-beijing-protest-after-womans-death/feed/0“Little Hu” Thrown into the Guangdong Firehttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/little-hu-n/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/little-hu-n/#commentsTue, 19 Mar 2013 02:46:03 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=153166Mimi Lau of the South China Morning Post reports that despite his reformist credentials, new Guangdong party chief Hu Chunhua has held his cards close to the vest while navigating a series of early tests:

His low-profile, opaque political agenda and seeming reluctance to outline his own policy ideas combined to make the rising political star almost invisible at the NPC meeting, China’s most important annual political event. His discreetness could be a strategy to hide his capabilities and bide his time – a self-preservation instinct that could help him grow wings before they are clipped prematurely.

If Hu does well in Guangdong, he is expected to be rewarded with membership of the Communist Party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, in just under five years.

It is believed by many China watchers that the reason that Wang was unable to get into the Politburo Standing Committee in November was that his high-profile, reformist image was not well received by party elders.

Lau adds that Hu’s dark grey hair can “best be described as salt and pepper, with plenty of white mixed in with the grey.” He did not have much time to get comfortable in his new seat, as a face-off broke out in early January between propaganda officials and journalists at the Southern Weekly newspaper over a rewriting of the liberal publication’s New Year greeting. And earlier this month, a police blockade around the village of Shangpu evoked memories of Wukan as residents demanded democratic elections and challenged the local village head over a disputed land deal.

Hu’s handling of these incidents offers clues about his management style, according to Reuters, as his local performance will affect his chances for promotion to the upper echelons of China’s central government. But the Diplomat’s Zachary Keck claims that Hu has backtracked on the agreed terms that ended the Southern Weekly incident, and his government’s response to the Shangpu crisis “oscillated between insufficient repression and insufficient concessions,” performances that will likely come under heavy scrutiny in Beijing:

That being said, these incidents in no way doom Hu’s future prospects in the Communist Party in the same way that stalled economic growth might. Still, if President Xi Jinping is like his predecessors his early tenure will be characterized attempts to shore up his power base. This usually includes, among other things, diminishing predecessors’ ability to exercise influence through well-placed political allies, which former President Hu Jintao has in spades.

It’s not clear if Xi Jinping will seek to diminish Hu Jintao’s influence by targeting his allies and protégés. Ling Jihua’s fate certainly suggests he might, whereas his decision to make Li Yuanchao vice president suggests he may not be all that concerned about the former president’s protégés after all.

Still, if Xi does move against the Hu Jintao-led Communist Youth League faction, Little Hu will want to avoid giving Xi any ammunition to target him directly.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/little-hu-n/feed/0Shine Has Worn Off Wukan’s Early Triumphshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/shine-has-worn-off-wukans-early-triumphs/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/shine-has-worn-off-wukans-early-triumphs/#commentsMon, 04 Mar 2013 15:39:13 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=152251While a disputed land sale has sparked protests and demands for democracy in the Guangdong village of Shangpu, Reuters reports that “spring is over” in the nearby village of Wukan, which made headlines last year for holding elections after ousting its own village leadership in late-2011 land grab protests:

Reuters visited Wukan six times over the last year-and-a-half, chronicling the early protests, the uprising, its eventual triumph and now its disillusionment.

The events in Wukan focused keen attention in Beijing over a problem the central government had long underplayed – rampant land seizures across China. The government is drafting revised land management legislation for the annual parliament session in March that would require farmers – an estimated 650 million of them in China – to be adequately compensated and relocated before officials can expropriate any land.

But Wukan’s failure to overcome entrenched corruption shows how difficult it is for grassroots protest to spur lasting change in China. Towering above Wukan is a vast local, regional and national edifice of Party control and vested interests. Indeed, even the Xi administration’s push to overhaul the land seizure law faces opposition from developers, businesses and local governments that depend on property sales.

“For Wukan, amongst all the villages in China, to be able to rise up and protect their interests, then to conduct a democratic election and to become a kind of experimental ground, is significant,” said Peng Peng, a senior researcher with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences. But the inexperience of the new leaders and their halting progress over the land issues has exposed the teething problems of nurturing village democracy in China, he added. “There can’t just be democracy, there needs to be solid administration, too.”

In its year in office, the committee has succeeded in returning 200 hectares of land sold off by the previous village chief, Mr Yang says. But many villagers are still determined to seize property for which the deeds were transferred to factory owners and businessmen several years ago.

Confronted with persistent criticism – in painful contrast to the adulation they once enjoyed of a once remarkably united village – Mr Lin and many committee members have contemplated resigning.

“I am afraid of seeing people, afraid of hearing my doorbell ring,” Mr Lin told a Shanghai television station last month. “Why? Because whatever I do or say now, people are able to find a way to blame me.”

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/shine-has-worn-off-wukans-early-triumphs/feed/1Villagers Protest Land Grab, Demand Democracyhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/shangpu-villagers-protest-land-grab-demand-democratic-polls/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/shangpu-villagers-protest-land-grab-demand-democratic-polls/#commentsMon, 04 Mar 2013 14:56:45 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=152243Police have set up a blockade around the Guangdong village of Shangpu, just 100 kilometers away from Wukan, after residents clashed with thugs they claim were sent by the local communist party chief in connection with a disputed land deal. The villagers have demanded democratic elections, according to AFP, which has gained entry into Shangpu:

At the main entrance of the village of 3,000 people, 40 police and officials stood guard, barring outside vehicles from entering. Not far away, a cloth banner read: “Strongly request legal, democratic elections.”

Shangpu’s two-storey houses, typical of the region, and low-slung family-run workshops are surrounded by fields awaiting spring planting. But the main street is lined with the wrecks of cars damaged in the clash, with glass and metal littering the ground.

Residents said they should have the right to vote both for the leader who represents them and on whether to approve a controversial proposal to transform rice fields into an industrial zone.

“This should be decided by a vote by villagers,” said one of the protest leaders, adding: “The village chief should represent our interests, but he doesn’t.”

Residents told AFP that the village chief and party head fraudulently collected signatures to facilitate the transfer of farmland to a local businessman for industrial use, and they fear they will not be properly compensated. China’s state-run Global Times reported on Monday that the county-level public security bureau arrested the village leader and eight othersit claims were hired by the village leader to attack the Shangpu residents:

County authorities said that on the morning of February 22, village committee director, Li Baoyu, called police to report he was attacked in his office and injured by six masked thugs. Less than an hour later, police say, Li hired his own thugs from other villages and ordered them to attack residents of Shangpu village, said the newspaper.

According to county police the fight injured four residents and damaged at least 26 vehicles, two of which were burned. Police earlier arrested Li, and on Friday eight other assailants were detained. The police are still hunting for 10 other men.

“We are not satisfied,” said one villager. “We removed corrupt officials to get our land back, but have received nothing, and the new village committee has not given us an explanation.”

[…]Lin Zuluan , 69, was elected head of the village committee. But now he says that, while democratic governance was worth trying, he regrets taking part in the campaign, because villagers have unrealistic expectations of their leaders.

“I am old,” Lin said. “I can’t stand the pressure and fulfil all of their expectations. I’ve gained nothing from the whole campaign; I should not have taken part in it. Democracy is something that all people should pursue, but the implementation of it should be gradual, and there should be an environment that is conducive to it. We can’t let it happen overnight.”

Lin also said the villagers were not clear about their rights and had raised “unreasonable” demands, such as asking the committee to publicly release every detail of contracts it signs.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/02/wukan-democracy-leaves-village-divided/feed/0Can Wukan Maintain Relevance?http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/01/can-wukan-maintain-relevance/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/01/can-wukan-maintain-relevance/#commentsTue, 15 Jan 2013 03:07:15 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=149995The Globe and Mail’s Mark MacKinnon checks in from Wukan, where the small village has struggled to deliver results from its democratic experiment:

What we found was a hardscrabble village – Wukan is home to rice farmers and fishermen – whose leaders are struggling to deliver on the promises they made to their electorate. The electorate, meanwhile, is beginning to wonder if choosing their own leaders has made things any better.

The Wukan uprising has been declared (by the academic who advised China’s new leader Xi Jinping on his doctoral thesis) to have “historic significance” because it showed democracy and social stability could coexist in China. But the new village council remains just a tiny brick at the bottom of a vast, corrupt and authoritarian power structure. And that power structure is obsessively monitoring the democrats of Wukan.

Shortly after we met Mr. Zhang for tea to discuss the events of the last year, a thin man in dark jacket walked in through the teahouse’s open door. “Who are you? Give me your business card,” he shouted, grabbing my shoulder. When I asked him to give me his own card first, he released his grip on me, handed Mr. Zhang a handwritten note and walked out without getting my name. “He’s a police informant,” Mr. Zhang said with the shrug of someone who sees such people every day.

The system is pushing back against Wukan’s uprising in subtler ways, too. Members of the seven-person village committee (only the village chief, Lin Zuluan, is a Communist Party member) say they’ve hit a wall in their efforts to reclaim villagers’ land that was illegally sold to real estate developers by the previous committee.

MacKinnon and photographer John Lehmann have chosen Wukan as the start of The China Diaries, “a journey of discovery overland through China by the Globe and Mail,” where they will seek to roughly retrace Mao’s Long March by rail over the next few weeks.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/01/can-wukan-maintain-relevance/feed/0Censorship Vault: Blogging Black List and Morehttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/12/censorship-vault-2/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/12/censorship-vault-2/#commentsMon, 17 Dec 2012 21:03:18 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=148464In partnership with the China Copyright and Media blog, CDT is adding the “Beijing Internet Instructions” series to the Censorship Vault. These directives were originally published on Canyu.org (Participate) and date from 2005 to 2007. According to Canyu, the directives were issued by the Beijing Municipal Network Propaganda Management Office and the State Council Internet management departments and provided to to Canyu by insiders. China Copyright and Media has not verified the source.

Concerning the fire that occurred in the Yeosu Foreigner Protection Center on Chonnam Island, South Korea, all websites are only to reprint Xinhua copy, close news trackers, do not reprint corresponding images, do not issue it on the main page of websites and the important news section of the news center.

Concerning the “Joint Statement concerning Sina Blog Deleting Posts” of He Weifang and others, this may not be posted in blogs and forums on any website without exception, where it is present, delete it.

12 February 2007, 17:21:10

Notice concerning setting up an advance link for the People’s Bank of China Director Assistant Yi Gang’s conducting an online interview on a steady monetary policy

The China Government Net will, between about 15:00 and 16:30 on 13 February, invite the Director Assistance of the People’s Bank of China, Yi Gang, for an online interview concerning a steady monetary policy, Sina, Sohu, Netease and other main commercial websites are requested to set up an advance notice link (www.gov.cn/zxft/ft3/) at 9:00 on 13 February in the lower part of the important news section of news centers, and timely reprint reports of the interview content.

13 February 2007, 10:13

All websites, concerning reports on the traditional Year of the Pig, it is not permitted to set up special subjects of the type of “Talking Pigs in the Pig Year” without exception, pay attention to letting pictures or images of “Pigs” appear less in reporting, pages with reports involving the “Pig Year” must avoid advertising related to Islam.

All websites: Please do not let He Weifang, Pu Zhiqiang, Xiao Han or Xu Zhiyong open a blog on your websites.

22 February 2007: 23:32:29

Delete the text on 3000 people jointly signing their name to strongly call upon the National People’s Congress to make a decision: correct the privatization of state-owned enterprises, forums, blogs, and other interactive segments are not to discuss this.

Please maintain the special subject of the text message event; put it on the second line of the main page of websites, and the third or fourth line of the important news section; wait for notification on when to remove it.

All websites: Please continue to maintain the special subject on the text message selection event; put it on the second line of the main page of websites daily, and on the third or fourth line of the important news section of the news center; you must absolutely wait for clear notification to remove it.

16 February 2007, 17:31:43

All websites: At present, the State Post Bureau is conducting post reform, and is currently researching new rules for express delivery statistics, all websites are requested to not set up special subjects for these two topics, and not to put corresponding reports in the important news section. Websites who have already set up special subjects are requested to push the special subject to the back stage.

16 February 2007, 08:42:29

We salute an early year to everyone, and wish everyone to have a good year.

(1) The first contact person must ensure that their mobile phone is on 24 hours, all websites’ duty telephones, MSN and RTX must remain online for 24 hours, propaganda management service platforms must ensure someone is on duty.

(2) It is necessary to send many articles building an atmosphere of holiday joy, happiness, and auspiciousness, proposing a civilized, healthy, and upward online mood, which fully reflect the richness and variety of the popular masses’ material and cultural lives and the progress that has been incessantly obtained in building a Socialist spiritual civilization.

(3) It is necessary to earnestly implement the “Internet News Information Service Management Regulations” and strictly standardize news sources, it is prohibited to use articles from small newspapers and periodicals in violation of regulations, and it is strictly prohibited to reprint information from foreign media; prevent playing up of negative news influencing social stability; reports concerning sudden or sensitive incidents must be based on Xinhua or People’s Daily content.

(4) It is necessary to strengthen management over information on forums, trackers, blogs, chat rooms, and text messages; news trackers must be closed on reports concerning sudden or sensitive incidents or mass incidents; forums, trackers, blogs, chat rooms, and other columns that are not managed by anyone must timely cease refreshing.

(7) During the holiday period, contact us at all times if there is something, we are also online 24 hours.

28 February 2007, 18:19

(1) Concerning the matter of Huarui Company having raised an administrative lawsuit with the National Development and Reform Commission concerning the overall development of hydroelectricity in the middle reaches of the Jinsha River, there are to be no reports without exception, forums, blogs, and other interactive segments may also not discuss this.

(2) Concerning the matter of First Steel Company transferring shares of Peruvian iron mines, there are to be no reports without exception, forums, blogs and other interactive segments may also not discuss this.

Please do not reprint the Lookout Oriental Weekly article “Chongqing Civil Servants Write Short Messages Remonstrating Against Present-Day Evils to More than One Hundred People for Survey,” where it has been reprinted, please immediately remove it. This article may also not be posted in forums or blogs.

(1) All work units are requested to strictly implement network security management systems, formulate emergency guarantee plans for the Forum period, immediately implement a specialist duty management structure, and report the name and contact telephone number of the duty manager to our office before 30 October through e-mail (e-mail: hdwj@263.net.cn);

(2) In order to guarantee that management is conducted even better over websites having established forums, chat rooms, BBS, electronic announcement columns, and other service programs, and effectively prevent the occurrence of sudden incidents, all websites providing forum services are requested to open up super-user management powers for our office’s network supervision and inspection office (being the powers to delete content), and report this to our office before 30 October through e-mail;

(3) During the Forum period, it is necessary to persist in an approval first and posting later system for posts, focus supervision and control on sensitive topics and active columns, vigorously discover harmful information, and especially where situations such as mass-type public order incidents, Falun Gong, etc., occur, it must be achieved that as soon as they are discovered, they are immediately deleted, and attention must be paid to timely preserving clues and timely reporting our office. Contact telephone: 82571260, contact person: Yu Haiyang.

All websites’ articles concerning SK-2 are no longer to be reprinted in the important news section of the news center, posts are not to be recommended on the front page, no longer produce new special subjects or special columns, existing special subjects must be put on the back stage, new report articles are no longer to link to the original special subject.

All websites are requested to immediately delete the text content of “Masterstroke Confuses Bureau” issued in the “News Investigation” column of CCTV on 23 October. Related higher education institute mass-type incidents may not be reported without exception, and management over forums, blogs, instant communication and other interactive columns must be strengthened, delete all corresponding text, image and video content.

26 October 2006, Beijing Municipal Information Office

Notice concerning Further Doing Online Propaganda and Reporting Work of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress Well

All websites: Studying, propagating, and implementing the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress is an important political task in the present and future periods’ Internet news and propaganda work, Qianlong Net and all main commercial portal websites must further do propaganda, reporting, and management work concerning the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress well, and strive to create a harmonious online public opinion atmosphere.

I. General requirements

Earnestly implement the general requirements and uniform deployment of the Center, fully give rein to the superiority and characteristics of the Internet, deeply propagate the spirit of the important speech of General Secretary Hu Jintao at the Plenum, deeply propagate the “CCP Central Committee Decision concerning Some Major Issues in Building a Harmonious Society” (hereafter simply named “Decision”), promote studying and implementing the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Committee, create a strong online public opinion atmosphere for welcoming the victorious convention of the 17th Party Congress, building a Socialist harmonious society, completely constructing a relatively well-off society, and initiating a new picture for the undertaking of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, further enhance recognition and understanding of the outside world of all of our principles and policies, work measures and China’s development progress situation.

II, Propaganda focus points

Strengthen online propaganda and reporting on the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress, the key is to grasp the following points well and achieve the seven deeps: first, deeply propagate the spirit of General Secretary Hu Jintao’s important speech and the major significance of the “Decision”. Propagate the deep elaboration of General Secretary Hu Jintao concerning building a Socialist harmonious society, the important deployment to implement the spirit of the Plenum, as well as the correct requirements put forward to do the present work well. Propagate the guiding ideology, objectives and tasks, work principles and major deployments on building a Socialist harmonious society put forward in the “Decision.” Second, deeply propagate the importance and urgency of building a Socialist harmonious society. Propagate that social harmony is an essential property of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and is an important guarantee for the country’s wealth and strength, the vitalization of the nation and the happiness of the people. Third, deeply propagate the guiding ideology, objectives, tasks, and principles for building a Socialist harmonious society. Fourth, deeply propagate the series of important measures of the Center concerning building a Socialist harmonious society. Fifth, deeply propagate the strengthening of Party leadership over the construction of a Socialist harmonious society. Sixth, deeply propagate the real actions of the entire party and the people of all ethnicities in the entire country in deeply studying and implementing the spirit of the Plenum and welcoming the victorious convention of the 17th Party Congress. Seventh, deeply propagate the fine aspirations and real actions of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government in persisting in marching the peaceful development path, and proposing the construction of a peaceful world.

III. Propaganda arrangements

(1) All websites are to set up “6th Plenum” and “Harmonious Society Construction” special subjects. On the main page of websites and main news pages, continuously strengthen reporting of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress. The special subjects must be maintained in the first position of the focus special subjects, and real-time news is to be used in the important news section to create a special subject entry point; after all websites roll out a real-time news special section, they shall put real-time news on the 6th Plenum in the first position, and make it into a special subject entry point.

(2) Timely reprint focus articles and focus reports from focus Central news and network media. The People’s Daily, Xinhua, and other main Central news media will successively publish a series of theoretical articles, expert interviews, hot spot interpretations, comments, and discussions in the near future, and roll out a batch of advanced models in building a harmonious society, websites must timely follow up, and prominently, timely, and correctly reprint these reports.

(3) Meticulously design special subject column content, strengthen attractiveness and infectiousness. All websites must earnestly plan special subjects, ensure that propaganda on home pages and main pages and special subject or special column propaganda is mutually coordinated and mutually resonating, and fully use text, images, audiovisuals, and many other propaganda methods to shape momentum and shape influence.

(4) Open up an online study and tutoring garden. All websites are to give rein to the dissemination superiority of the Internet, and provide online study and tutoring support for the propaganda of the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Committee. They must provide inquiry services for important documents, materials, and data to netizens, and may invite expert academics for online interviews under the condition of asking the Municipal Network Management Office for permission, to provide theoretical and policy tutorial services.

(6) Strengthen reports on studying and implementing the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress in Beijing. Qianlong Net will set up a special Beijing column, and strengthen reports concerning Beijing City studying the spirit of General Secretary Hu Jintao’s important speech and the “Decision,” and timely reprints important articles and reports from the Beijing Daily and other municipally-subordinate traditional media; all other commercial websites must appropriately strengthen reports on all walks of life studying, propagating, and implementing the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress.

IV. Strengthen guidance and management over online public opinion. In the near future, public opinion guidance work in the following few areas must be stressed, all websites are to strengthen management over trackers and forums with reference to them. First, the nature and deep connotations of the Socialist harmonious society must be completely elaborated. Second, it must be fully explained that building a harmonious society reflects the Party’s persistent putting the basic interest of the broadest people as the starting point and stopover point for all Party and government work. Third, it must be deeply elaborated that the Party and government pay even more attention to the development of social undertakings, pay even more attention to resolving the problems of imbalanced development, and promote the coordinated development of economy and society. Fourth, guidance must be strengthened over social security, labor, and employment, education fairness, healthcare and hygiene services, and other hot sports and issues that the masses are concerned about. Fifth, public opinion guidance over running the web in a civilized manner and using the web in a civilized manner must be continuously strengthened, forcefully build an online harmonious culture.

V. Assessment and rewards. In order to encourage all websites to do propaganda and reporting of the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress, the Municipal Network Management Office will conduct assessment and rewards of all websites’ propaganda situation concerning the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress. At the end of November, the Municipal Network Management Office will organize experts, to comprehensively mark all websites’ arrangement of special subject positions, special subject content, propaganda forms, propaganda and public opinion guidance in interactive columns, website and news front pages, management situations, etc., and the first three sites will be given material and spiritual awards, those with insufficient propaganda are criticized (comparative assessment and award standards are notified separately).

VI. Propaganda requirements. First, training for website editors concerning the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress must be strengthened. The Municipal Network Management Office will organize and convene special subject lectures to study the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress. All websites must also internally organize editors to focus on studying the spirit of General Secretary Hu Jintao’s important speech and the spirit of the “Decision,” to raise their understanding of the spirit of the 6th Plenum of the 16th Party Congress, raise the level of online propaganda work, and realistically implement online management work measures. Second, a harmonious network must be forcefully built, and harmonious culture construction stimulated. All websites must strictly implement laws, regulations and rules, standardize news sources, and resist false news; correctly grasp well the propaganda specifications, proportions, strength, and rhythm. The major theoretical viewpoints and major policy deployments put forward by the Plenum must on the one hand be propagated on a grand scale, and on the other hand, it is necessary to strive in terms of complete understanding and correct grasping, to assist the broad cadres and masses to deeply comprehend the new viewpoints, new thoughts, new measures, and new requirements put forward by the Plenum. Third, network management must be grasped, creating harmonious online public opinion. Propaganda and reporting of the spirit of the 6th Plenum has a strong political nature, policy nature, and theoretical nature, all websites must strengthen management and strictly abide by propaganda discipline. They must pay close attention to online public opinion, strengthen management over forums, news trackers, blogs, mobile phone messages, and search engine services, they must timely and firmly block and delete harmful information that seizes the opportunity to attack the Party and the government, attack the Socialist system, disseminate so-called major personnel arrangement rumors, disseminate illegal mass incidents and activities, incite incidents influencing social stability, destroy the unity of the nation, violate State religious policies, etc. For uncertain cases, instructions must be sought from the Network Management Office, and it must be examined first and issued afterwards.

Beijing Municipal Internet Propaganda Management Office

26 October 2006, 11:53, Beijing Municipal Network Management Office

(1) Concerning the Jinghua Times news “19 Melon Growers Claim Damages From Ministry of Agriculture,” this has been verified, the said report is inaccurate, all websites already having this news are to push this to the back stage without exception.

(2) Starting tomorrow, look for articles concerning traffic control during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation period every day, and issue it in in the important news section.

Concerning discussions on real-name systems for blogs, do not make this into special subjects, do not publish headers on blog pages, do not conduct surveys, do not engage in contention, controversy, name-signing, etc.; forums are not to actively set up topics. Concerning these topics, they are to be removed without exception from main pages of websites and main news pages, the main pages of blogs and forums, approving voices must occupy the mainstream.

27 October 2006, 14:23, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Yang Le

Instructions concerning the news “Tickets May Be Purchased with a Real-Name System on Tieliu Net ” published by the Chongqing Evening News, this has been verified, and the said news report is inaccurate, all websites that have already published this, please delete it.

27 October 2006, 14:23, Beijing Municipal Information Office

(1) Instructions concerning the news “Tickets May Be Purchased with a Real-Name System on Tieliu Net ” published by the Chongqing Evening News, this has been verified, and the said news report is inaccurate, all websites that have already published this, please delete it.

(2) All websites are requested to immediately delete the content of the text “Masterstroke Confuses Bureau” published in the “News Survey” column of CCTV on 23 October. Concerning the mass incidents in higher education institutes, no reports are to be made without exception, and strengthen management over forums, blogs, instant communications, and other interactive columns, delete all relevant text, image, and video content.

27 October 2006, 15:41, Beijing Municipal Information Office, Yang Le

Concerning the Xinhua Net news flash “145 Measurable Earthquakes Occurred in the Three Gorges Reservoir Since Filling up with Water,” all websites are requested to push this to the back stage without exception.

The information on “70% of Beijing Olympic Ticket Sale Estimate of 7 Million for Domestic Market” reported by the Beijing Evening News on 17 October is incorrect, websites are requested not to reprint it, where it has been reprinted, please delete it.

All websites: In recent days, some websites reprinted reports from Caijing magazine, etc., concerning the Guomei Group chairman Huang Guangyu, which do not conform to provisions on news reprint sources. All websites must strictly implement corresponding regulations, and may not reprint information from sources not conform to regulations, where it has been reprinted, it must be immediately deleted.

(1) All websites: Recently, the well-known sexologist Li Yinhe has successively published discussions on the legality of “wife-swapping” and “incest,” all websites are requested to immediately delete corresponding reports, and to push special subjects that are being discussed to the back stage.

(2) Today, some websites have reprinted the Zhang Yimou article “West Lake Impressions” on destruction of the ecological environment, which triggered netizen discussion. According to the opinion of Hangzhou City, these articles diverge relatively largely from facts, all websites are requested to immediately delete corresponding articles. Online forums and blogs are no longer to discuss this.

1. China’s political system has the efficiency and consensus to produce far-sighted decisions that Washington can only envy. Faced with our own gridlock and polarization, Americans are understandably eager to find a rhetorical cudgel, and we entered 2012 repeating the line that Chinese leaders had become all that ours were not: ambitious, visionary, willing to pull for a larger purpose. In last year’s State of the Union, President Obama invoked China as the “home to the world’s largest private solar research facility, and the world’s fastest computer. “So, yes,” Obama said, “the world has changed.” And he was not wrong. But this year added some sobering facts about the haste, waste, and corruption associated with China’s Great Leap. When a bridge collapsed in August, killing three people and injuring five, it was the sixth bridge collapse in a little over a year. The authorities blamed overloaded trucks, but it turned out that the concrete had been adulterated with sticks and plastic bags, the kind of corner-cutting that Chinese regulators have found in the nation’s enormous railway construction project. For this and other reasons that follow, the myth of China’s political efficiency can be retired.

10. Local bureaucrats might be corrupt, but decision-makers at the top are carefully selected and have deep public approval. “If we speak candidly,” wrote Deng Yuwen, a deputy editor of the Party-run newspaper called Study Times, “this decade has seeded or created massive problems, and the problems are even more numerous than the achievements.” The Bo Xilai debacle exposed a gangland element to Party politics that reaches to the top, and the revelations about Wen Jiabao’s family wealth leaves no doubt about the extent of self-dealing. Inside and outside the Party, reformists are calling not only for economic liberalization but also for credible efforts to end the two-tiered society, to resume political reform, and to narrow the widening wealth gap. China faces more urgent threats to growth and social stability than any time since the uprising at Tiananmen Square, in 1989. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of strikes and riots and what Chinese officials call “mass incidents,” doubled to a hundred eighty thousand a year—and that will continue to grow until the political culture improves.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/12/top-ten-myths-about-china-in-2012/feed/2Censorship Vault: Beijing Internet Instructions Series (9)http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/11/censorship-vault-beijing-internet-instructions-series-9/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/11/censorship-vault-beijing-internet-instructions-series-9/#commentsFri, 16 Nov 2012 23:20:03 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=146769In partnership with the China Copyright and Media blog, CDT is adding the “Beijing Internet Instructions” series to the Censorship Vault. These directives were originally published on Canyu.org (Participate) and date from 2005 to 2007. According to Canyu, the directives were issued by the Beijing Municipal Network Propaganda Management Office and the State Council Internet management departments and provided to to Canyu by insiders. China Copyright and Media has not verified the source.

Please remove the report “Drunken Police Officer in Fushun, Liaoning, Who Beat Taxi Driver to Death and Threw Body into the Wild Convicted to Death” to the back stage tomorrow.

Concerning the matter of business proprietor rights defense in Huanan New City, Guangzhou, if there is harmful information inciting mass incidents in forums, please delete it.

All websites must earnestly implement the requirements of not engaging in online civil mediation revolving around the “Two Sessions,” and not to jointly report on matters with traditional media.

Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

21 February 2006

Last Friday, propaganda requirements concerning the new countryside construction have been transmitted to everyone, everyone is requested to perform matters according to the notifications at the meeting, and make timely and prominent propaganda on the front pages of websites. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

A notice from Fan Tao was received:

1, Please issue the text Scientifically Exploring the Issue of the Scale of Chinese Government Officials that was recently published on People’s Daily online in a clear position on the front page of websites, transfer it onto and recommend it on forums, the title may not be changed when reprinting. Please strengthen management over trackers and forums at the same time, guide corresponding discussion well, timely delete harmful discussion. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you.

2. Today, there is a piece of information called “Many Household Heads Create Uproar with the Tianhe District Government, Guangzhou, Threatening with Suicide,” all websites are requested to not adopt this, where it has already been transmitted, please delete it immediately!

The revision of the “Postal Law” is extremely sensitive and complex, it involves a broad scope and many personnel, and some professional areas directly involve national information security. To report postal structure reform, the revision of the “Postal Law” and other major issues websites are only to use Xinhua copy, and are strictly prohibited to use copy from other sources, forums are also not to discuss this. No reports may be transferred without exception on “news conferences” organized by people-run or foreign-invested rapid delivery companies and distributed information and copy. Management over news forums, news trackers, blogs and other interactive columns must be strengthened, timely remove information not corresponding to the above requirements.

(2) Do not play up the incident in which our engineers were attacked in Pakistan. Report more on the domestic concern and regard on this matter, and the work done by our corresponding departments, appropriately report the efforts made by the Pakistani side in arresting the murderers. Only transfer copy from Xinhua, People’s Daily and other main central news work units, forums may not discuss this, strengthen management over interactive columns, inciting discussions and other harmful content must be timely deleted.

10 February 2006

Received a notice from Fan Tao: The issue of finished petroleum product price changes may not be reported or played up without approval!

10 February 2006

All websites may without exception not report the so-called “new share distribution and marketization management rules,” it may not be discussed in forums, please strictly implement requirements!

9 February 2006

Recently, some websites greatly played up the matter of the so-called “prostitute diary” of a Hunan lady university student, gravely violating social morals, this must be firmly stopped. Websites may not transmit information and comments on the so-called “prostitute diary,” forums may also not discuss this, corresponding online articles, comments and posts must be immediately deleted.

9 February 2006

Concerning the “Denmark cartoon” incident, all websites are requested to not set up special subjects, do not set up trackers, please use Xinhua copy when transmitting. Please acknowledge receipt, thank you!

5 February 2006

Concerning the matter of European newspaper cartoons triggering Muslim protests, begin to cool this down, do not play it up, only transmit central focus news website copy for corresponding reporting, do not make large headlines, control tracker numbers within 200 items, do not conduct VIP interviews, if there are reports on reflections from domestic Muslims, they are not to be published without exception.